Business Directories

Top Arab group 'committed to Bahrain'

Manama, January 17, 2012

The Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation (TAG-Org), the largest Arab group of professional service firms, said it remains completely committed to Bahrain.

The group has 73 offices across the Middle East and Africa and representative offices in Europe and North America.

In June last year the organisation opened its new state-of-the-art corporate headquarters in Sanabis.

"We remain committed to Bahrain and I for one feel very secure and very confident in the future of the kingdom," said organisation chairman Talal Abu-Ghazaleh.

"I regard myself as both a Jordanian and a Bahraini and nothing is going to change that. In Bahrain, there is a culture of stability and it is a model for any small country with limited resources," he remarked.

"The leadership here is strong and shows a willingness to address problems," he added.

"Many years ago, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, said to me that I pleased him because I upset him," he said.

"That is the mark of a true statesman because he wants to know the facts and hear the problems," he added.

Abu-Ghazaleh said the way forward for Bahrain and other countries in the region 'is our ability to co-exist.'

"The solution to problems is realising we need to agree to disagree because complete conformity is not good and it is healthy to disagree so long as this is done constructively and positively for the benefit of all."

"We in the Arab world are going through a process of change that is a renaissance which will create a renaissance in the West as the economic balance between East and West changes," he said.

"I believe we have to look at the current global economy with new eyes," he added.

"It used to be that when the US sneezed, the world caught pneumonia. That is not longer the case.

"The US sneezed and the East is doing fine. We both need each other but now things are more of a partnership because we need each other," he remarked.

"Let me be controversial," he said. "There is no global crisis. There is a social and economic crisis in some countries in the West. There is no crisis in Qatar, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia," he stated.

"What we need is wise leadership and to be able to move forward through evolution rather than revolution," Abu-Ghazaleh remarked.

"This process will take long years and may be a painful one with people making economic and social sacrifices," he said.

"We need cultural change, a new set of standards and belief in the future across the globe," he said.

"This will undoubtedly be resisted by some vested interests and factions looking for new regimes but it is the way forward if we understand each other's points of view and agree sometimes to disagree but still work together," he added.

Operating in an area of the world that is experiencing radical and unprecedented change, TAG-Org is "well aware of and experienced in all aspects of the economic environment, including the social and regulatory factors governing it," he said.

"TAG-Org is meeting this challenge by providing highly experienced specialists who anticipate economic and social trends and evaluate alternatives to determine the most creative solutions for present and future problems," he added.-TradeArabia News Service